Last week missionary Phil Henderson and his Mwinika translation co-workers finished a first draft of verses at the end of Revelation.

“For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”

Upon finishing their session, one of the men told Phil, “We know that you have only been translating the highlights of the biblical story and that you plan on eventually filling in the many stories that you have skipped over, but you do realize, don’t you, that now it is really obligatory that you do so. The passage we just finished translating says if you don’t finish your work you will have taken away from the words of this book, and you know the penalty for that. Beware! You don’t want to experience those plagues we just translated.”

“I guess now I am really committed,” Phil concluded.

Of the more than 31,000 verses in the Bible, Phil said, “We have drafted verse one and verse 31,102 and a whole lot of others in between, but we still have not made a very big dent in the overall job. The vast bulk of verses in the middle still need to be drafted. And drafting is only one of the very early steps in the overall translation process.”

Please pray that Phil and the translation team will be able to complete the long process of giving the Mwinka people all of the Word of God so they can develop their relationship with Christ and become a mature church.

You can help Phil and the Mwinikas complete the Bible translation.